Facebook Makes it Easier to Search for Old Posts

Looking for a specific Facebook post you saw in your news feed weeks ago? It should now be easier to find it.

The social network over the weekend began rolling out its Graph Search to iOS devices and the Web with a new keyword search feature to help you find old posts. You can now find photos, videos, posts, and links by simply searching for keywords in the post, just like you would on Google.

This means you can now run searches like "Caroline wedding" or "cookie recipe Lisa" or "ice bucket challenge" and actually find what you need. The rollout comes after Facebook first started testing Graph Search in beta almost two years ago.

"You've given us a lot of feedback on the Graph Search beta," Facebook's vice president of search, Tom Stocky, wrote in a blog post Sunday. "You've told us the most important thing is being able to find posts you've seen before, and now you can."

"With a quick search, you can get back to a fun video from your graduation, a news article you've been meaning to read, or photos from your friend's wedding last summer," Stocky added.

Users have also asked for a better way to search Facebook posts on their phones, so the latest updates were designed to work on mobile devices. They're rolling out this week to all English-speaking users on the iPhone and desktop.

Meanwhile, Facebook said it's committed to improving the search experience even further going forward. "Search at Facebook is a long-term effort," Stocky said.

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of West Virginia University's Perely Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
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